Why Azim Ansari must continue to study here in Oxford
Recent evidence would lead you to believe that student activism is dead. The level of student protest is at the lowest it has been in decades, while this very newspaper has published articles tabling the demise of demonstration.
However, one issue has inflamed the passions of students at this University and throughout the country. We are binded by one common belief; Azim Ansari must be allowed to stay at Oxford University.
If Azim and his brother Wali lose their court appeal on the 22nd December, Azim will be removed from the University of Oxford and compelled to return to Afghanistan. We cannot stand by and let this happen.
The Ansaris are ethnic Hazari of the Islaimi Shia religion. In Afghanistan this made them a minority within a minority.
Throughout the Taleban's brutal rule they persecuted the Hazari. On the eve of the war with America the Taliban decreed that it was 'just' to kill ethnic Hazari. Azim and Wali fled Afghanistan without their family.
The Home Office ruling against the Ansaris follows a declaration that the situation in Afghanistan is now stable. According to the Home Office, Afghanistan is now a safe country for Azim and other Afghan refugees to return.
This is mere propaganda, a sad consequence of the imperatives of the war on terror and the volatility of the asylum seeker issue within the UK.
Despite the US-led invasion disposing of the abhorrent, tyrannical Taleban regime, American cooperation with anti-Taleban warlords has left much of the country once again at the mercy of military despots. Meanwhile, the Taleban is by no means a spent force and continues to terrorise areas of the south and east.
The infrastructure of Afghan cities has collapsed under the influx of refugees. Since 2002 three million Afghans have returned from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan.
Furthermore, Azim and Wali may have nothing to go back to. Since leaving Afghanistan they have not heard from their family and they fear that they may not have survived the turmoil since 2001.
This is an unsafe situation to return Azim and Wali into, yet the Home Office believe that Afghan refugees should now return to their home country. Critics have suggested that this decision is a cynical propaganda ploy to divert attention away from the growing crisis in Iraq by declaring that the war in Afghanistan has been a success.
The Home Office's position seems increasingly untenable when observing Foreign Office advice to British citizens. The Foreign Office website clearly states that the "security situation in Afghanistan remains serious" and that they "strongly advise against all travel outside the capital city of Kabul."
If the Foreign Office decrees that Afghanistan is not safe for British citizens, how can it be safe for members of a persecuted ethnic and religious minority?
However, the most crucial issue for we as students is the defence of the rights of a fellow member of this University. Azim Ansari wants to return to Afghanistan, just not now.
He wants to return when the country is safe and when he is sufficiently qualified to make a difference to the progress of his homeland.
Who are we to deny him this right? The government claims to be committed to the reconstruction of Afghanistan. How better to aid the redevelopment of this war-torn country than to educate the likes of Azim Ansari so they can use their expertise to help reconstruct Afghanistan?
Students of Oxford in support of Azim Ansari have united under the banner of 'Keep Azim in Oxford'. This Tuesday there will be a candle-lit vigil outside St John's College between 5.30pm and 6.30pm to raise awareness of Azim's plight.
Over the next week motions in support of Azim should be on the agenda for every college JCR. This will require the assistance of students across the University.
Students may no longer be politically mobilised in a way that we once were, but this is certainly something to shout about. Azim has achieved so much in simply gaining his place at Oxford.
He deserves so much more than this shoddy treatment by the Home Office. As fellow students we have a responsibility to defend Azim Ansari.
If you would like to get involved with 'Keep Azim in Oxford' or want more information please e-mail keep_azim_in_oxford@hotmail. com
18th Nov 2004